The right car, on the right road at the right time

[MikeO996]

Spent a day driving through N Wales today, ending up with three laps of the evo triangle, absolutely awesome, the perfect marriage (if a bit chilly!). Caterham life doesn't get much better.

[downsman]

Sounds good

I hope to get up there next year.

[MikeO996]

And what a difference a day makes. Wet and miserable today, home as easily as possible, but at least it's an adventure.

The car gets such a positive reaction. Yesterday at a services a couple boys wanted their photo taking with it, over breakfast in the hotel this morning other guests were chatting about it admiringly, and on the motorway everyone was having a good look ( but that was probably in pity or amazement that I'd be out there in such crappy conditions)

[MikeO996]

Probably should have started a new topic but don't want to flood the forum.

I know you shouldn't put away a wet car, but on a day like today what are you supposed to do?

I've left the roof on worrying that it might shrink if I bring it indoors. Don't see much point towelling down (dirty) aluminium body panels. Are there any bits that it really is worth trying to dry in the garage?

[downsman]

What I do is to clean off as much of the muck as possible by washing the car.
Run up and down the road to heat up the brakes and dry them off and drive into the garage.
Then use a a chamois to wipe off as much water as possible.

I bring the hood in to dry as well as the floor mats if it's been really wet, and it hasn't shrunk yet

I have an airchamber, so I leave the fans on with the end open to encourage a good draught, but leaving a door ajar would do much the same.

Hope this helps

[Tango7]

I washed mine down today and gave the engine bay a degrease too. It didn't really matter that it was raining whilst I did it but the weather lightened enough for me to dry it using using Autoglym Aquawax and then pushed into the garage to dry it properly. I always wipe down the wishbones and suspension too to stop it corroding. Its on axle stands now so I turned the wheels to stop the pads rusting to the disks and I'll take it for a run round the block as soon as the roads are dry to dry the brakes out throughly.

If you have a hood and its got wet or been washed, I'd wipe the excess moisture off and leave it on the car to dry. A handy tip is if the car is not being used over winter, is to pop the hood back on and leave it stretched whilst the car is being stored. It stops the windows being permanently creased plus keeps the dust/dirt from the inside of the car if the doors are left on

HTH

T

[robmlufc]

Great tips guys!

[Caterhamfan]

MikeO996 said:

Probably should have started a new topic but don't want to flood the forum.

I know you shouldn't put away a wet car, but on a day like today what are you supposed to do?

I've left the roof on worrying that it might shrink if I bring it indoors. Don't see much point towelling down (dirty) aluminium body panels. Are there any bits that it really is worth trying to dry in the garage?

Depends how precious you want to be about the car - mine was a daily driver for nearly 2 years and got put away as it was, wet or dry, clean or dirty. I never used the hood so the inside often got "a bit" damp but it dried out overnight If it's raining when you get the car home driving it up and down the road isn't going to do much to dry it off, so I'd just put it in the garage with the roof on (as you say, to stop it shrinking) and the side-screens open so the inside can breathe and dry out a bit. Once the weather has improved you can then do whatever you feel like to clean/dry/polish it